Last Call For "Justice"

And George Zimmerman is a free man tonight, exonerated in the death of Trayvon Martin.

George Zimmerman is not guilty of murder in the death of Trayvon Martin, a Florida jury decided late Saturday.

The fact that Zimmerman fired the bullet that killed Martin was never in question, but the verdict means the six-person jury had reasonable doubt that the shooting amounted to a criminal act.

The verdict caps a case that has inflamed passions for well over a year, much of it focused on race and gun rights.

The jury -- made up of all women -- had three choices: to find Zimmerman guilty of second-degree murder; to find him guilty of the lesser charge of manslaughter; or to find him not guilty.

The jurors deliberated for 16½ hours total, including 13 on Saturday alone, before delivering their verdict.

In the end the jury decided that Florida's stand your ground law meant that the killing of Martin was justified.  Regardless of the verdict tonight, Trayvon Martin is dead.  MoJo's Lauren Williams:

But it’s not over. Now that the verdict is in, here’s what could happen next.

Federal charges: The Department of Justice launched an investigation last March to investigate whether Martin’s shooting amounted to a federal hate crime—that is, if Zimmerman followed and killed Martin because he was black. In July 2012, the FBI released a statement saying that investigators had found no evidence that Zimmerman was motivated by racism. The July statement indicates that federal charges are highly unlikely, but the DOJ has not announced that the case is closed. It’s still being brought up as a post-trial possibility. NAACP president Benjamin Jealous, for instance, said Saturday on MSNBC that "there are still additional legal avenues. He could still be charged with federal civil rights charges."

Civil lawsuit: Martin’s family reached a settlement in April with the homeowners’ association of the subdivision where the killing occurred. The details of the settlement were not made public, but the Orlando Sentinel reported that the family was "said to" have been awarded at least $1 million. The suit did not include Zimmerman, but the family’s attorney Benjamin Crump has said that the family intends to sue their son’s killer at some point in the future. It’s not uncommon for families to seek a form of justice through civil courts, even when a the defendant is acquitted in criminal court. And the standards for judgments are different in such civil cases.

The public’s reaction: In the week leading to the verdict, speculation that people—specifically black people—would riot if Zimmerman were acquitted spread through the mainstream media, after taking off in the conservative press and cable news. What’s more likely, based on how Martin supporters have reacted initially—after the verdict was read, the crowd outside of the courthouse dispersed peacefully—is that protests (of the non-violent variety) against racial profiling will continue.

All important things to remember.

Jaeger And Kaiju Must Fight, It Is The Way Of All Things

In the year 2025, things aren't going so well for that whole "humanity" thing in Pacific Rim.

We're getting mauled by a race of giant monsters, Kaiju, coming out of an inter-dimensional rift in the bottom of the Pacific Ocean.  For the last dozen years or so the earth has fought back with Jaegers, massive robots piloted by neurally-linked pairs of brave souls.  The problem is the Kaiju are winning, coming through the rift bigger, badder, and more often and the Jaeger program, and the Pan-Pacific Defense Corps that runs it is about to be defunded as the final days of humanity draw near.

Enter our hero, Raleigh Beckett (Charlie Hunnam), a former Jaeger pilot who lost his brother halfway through this long Kaiju War.  With earth down to a handful of outclassed and outgunned Jaegers, PPDC Marshal Stacker Pentecost (yes, that's his name, and yes, he's played by Idris Elba) drags him out of anonymity in Alaska and to the final remaining Jaeger base in Hong Kong, with the plan to make a last-ditch effort to attack the rift itself and seal it, saving the planet.

If this seems like the plot of the most badass live-action anime you can think of (plus Ron Perlman) then yes, you're pretty much right on the mark.  Pacific Rim knows exactly who its audience is and opens up with slam-bang action, all the way through, as we see the Kaiju War through Beckett's eyes.  Mako Mori (Oscar-nominated Rinko Kikuchi), Pentecost's young protege', may be the only person able to link with Beckett and handle the pain of his loss while still being able to fire plasma cannon shots down the throats of rampaging Kaiju, and Drs. Geiszler and Gottlieb and (Charlie Day and Burn Gorman) round out the cast as the brains behind the robotic brawn.

Proust and Longfellow, this ain't.  But as far as giant robots with elbow-rocket assisted punching goes?  It's Shakespeare.   So far, this movie is the only thing coming close to Iron Man 3 in the summer fun department.

The Pitter-Pat Of Small Men

In a move that surprised precisely nobody, NC GOP Gov. Pat McCrory broke his campaign promise from just 9 months ago and will sign draconian NC House anti-choice measures into law, because Republicans have declared that women are all too stupid to be trusted with their own vaginas or something.  Also, motorcycle safety.

McCrory said he doesn’t consider the provisions in the House bill that increase regulation of abortion clinics to be in conflict with his campaign promise because the regulations simply need updating to ensure patient safety. The last time the state updated the regulations was in 1994.

“I will sign it because it doesn’t restrict further access and it’s safer, which was needed,” McCrory said in an interview in New Bern earlier Friday with a News 14 reporter, according to the TV station.

Last week, the Senate unexpectedly produced a new abortion bill that pulled together elements of three other bills and quickly passed it. On Monday, McCrory expressed reservations about the bill, telling reporters there was a distinction between safety measures and restrictions, and that he wanted to ensure women’s health was protected.

On Wednesday, he threatened to use his veto power for the first time if his concerns weren’t addressed. The announcement heartened abortion-rights supporters, but not for long. The House then crafted a new bill in consultation with the governor’s administration, which the full House approved Thursday. 

So, at this point instead of the NC Senate deciding to close down all but one clinic in the state, McCrory can quietly close down all of them with even more draconian stuff.  After all, this is a guy who in the seven months since he took office has purged regulators from nearly every state department and replaced them with his own cronies, signed into law such drastic cuts in unemployment benefits that the state no longer qualifies for any federal unemployment dollars, moved to eliminate early voting and same-day voter registration, and named wealthy state Tea Party leader Art Pope as his budget director.

Yeah, McCrory won't totally screw over women with this bill.

There are not many differences between the House and Senate versions of the bill. The Senate bill would require abortion clinics to meet standards that are similar to outpatient surgery centers. Only one clinic in the state meets those stringent standards and 16 others could have to close because they couldn’t afford to upgrade.

The House bill orders the state Department of Health and Human Services to develop regulations that in some instances might be as stringent as outpatient surgery centers if applicable, “while not unduly restricting access.” The bill also allows the state to develop temporary rules without legislative approval, and eventually come up with permanent rules.

The House bill’s sponsors say that it is meant to be less restrictive than the Senate bill, but opponents say it is vague and could end up erecting more barriers to abortion clinics than the other bill, depending on how the law is interpreted.

And guess who now has total control over the state's Department of Health and Human Services?  Why, Pat McCrory, who purged those appointed by Democrats and installed his own guys.  Best part is he'll get away with it.  Or, he thinks he will.

How about it, North Carolina women?

Read more here: http://www.newsobserver.com/2013/07/12/3025869/mccrory-will-sign-house-abortion.html#storylink=cpy

 

StupidiNews, Weekend Edition!

• After a week of protests and debate, the Texas Senate has passed extremely restrictive anti-abortion laws, headed to Gov. Rick Perry's desk for signature and a nearly instant court battle.
• New figures show powder cocaine use in the US has dropped significantly, with the latest survey finding a 40% drop from 2006 to 2011 numbers.
• A third victim of the crash of Asiana Airlines Flight 214 has died of injuries sustained in the accident as all four runways at SFO have now been cleared.
• Preliminary investigation into Friday's Parisian train crash that killed seven finds a technical fault with the train linkage broke during the crash.
• A 19-year old Texas man who was jailed for making "terroristic threats" on Facebook is out on bail after an anonymous donor covered his $500,000 bond.

Last Call For The Half-Grown Farm Bill

Jon Bernstein asks "What did Orange Julius actually get out of a Farm Bill with no SNAP funding?"

The story, here, is that the original House version of the bill failed when an amendment was adopted which cut SNAP (food stamp) funding, meaning that it lost Democratic votes, while Republicans deserted the bill anyway because it was still too high-spending for them. The leadership "solved" that by splitting the bill and going for a GOP-only 218, and after (reported) heavy lobbing, they got over the bar.

What's not clear to me is whether John Boehner is better off with this thing passing. As Ed Kilgore notes, it's not real likely that anything can come out of conference that can pass. It's not really clear, right now, if the separate nutrition bill can pass. It's not clear what Boehner had to promise to conservatives about conference to get them to stick on this vote. It's not clear what the next step is.

It's clear what the next step is if you assume SNAP is nothing more than 47 million hostages the Tea Party can take.

It seems to me that Boehner did have another choice. If the GOP-only farm-only Farm Bill fails, then maybe he can push the mainstream of his conference to support a bipartisan bill, leaving the conservative fringe out entirely. It won't work on everything, but on the Farm Bill, it really might. Maybe. And if it works on the Farm Bill and there's little fallout, that might strengthen Boehner's ability to gather different coalitions on the next tough one that comes up.

Sure.  And then it becomes another regular battle over SNAP that the House can then use for leverage.  Poor people are just bargaining chips.  They don't matter, and they aren't a majority Republican constituency.  They're poor people.  Screw 'em.

Bobo Gets Lucky On The Dice

Visually-impaired squirrel named David Brooks, meet the tasty acorn of immigrationyou stumbled across by complete accident.

It’s beginning to look as though we’re not going to get an immigration reform law this year. House Republicans are moving in a direction that will probably be unacceptable to the Senate majority and the White House. Conservative commentators like my friends Bill Kristol and Rich Lowry are arguing that the status quo is better than the comprehensive approach passed by the Senate. The whole effort is in peril.

This could be a tragedy for the country and political suicide for Republicans, especially because the conservative arguments against the comprehensive approach are not compelling.  

Every now and again, David Brooks is correct about something.  That's what makes the other 97% of the time so maddening, because it means his standard obliviousness is a conscious choice.  And again, you long-time lurkers know I've been telling anyone who cared to listen that the House GOP was going to trash immigration reform, just like seven years ago.

The first conservative complaint is that, as Kristol and Lowry put it, “the enforcement provisions are riddled with exceptions, loopholes and waivers.” If Obama can waive the parts of Obamacare he finds inconvenient, why won’t he end up waiving a requirement for the use of E-Verify. 

There’s some truth to this critique, and maybe the House should pass a version of the Senate bill that has fewer waivers and loopholes. But, at some point, this argument just becomes an excuse to oppose every piece of legislation, ever. All legislation allows the executive branch to have some discretion. It’s always possible to imagine ways in which a law may be distorted in violation of its intent. But if you are going to use that logic to oppose something, you are going to end up opposing tax reform, welfare reform, the Civil Rights Act and everything else. 

And surprise, that's exactly what they are doing and why.   Republicans are opposing legislating and governance itself and figure whatever happens, they can hang it all on Obama.

Whether this bill passes or not, this country is heading toward a multiethnic future. Republicans can either shape that future in a conservative direction or, as I’ve tried to argue, they can become the receding roar of a white America that is never coming back. 

That’s what’s at stake. 

They'll never do it.  Years from now when we look back on the ruins of the Obama-era GOP and their failure on immigration reform as where they broke down for good.

North Colorado Rockies

Colorado Republicans apparently aren't too fond of democracies where they might lose elections, so ten rural (and very tea party red) Colorado counties are now openly talking about secession and forming their own North Colorado state.

There’s a growing effort to create a 51st state out of parts of northeast Colorado.

Ten counties, including Weld and Morgan, started talking about seceding last month. Now some people Lincoln and Cheyenne counties say they want to join a new state they’d call “North Colorado.”

Organizers of the secession effort say their interests are not being represented at the state Capitol. Representatives from the 10 counties held a meeting on Monday in the town of Akron in Weld County to begin mapping the boundaries for the new state they say will represent the interests of rural Colorado.

Yeah, Republicans love democracy and voting so much they want to break off and form their own state rather than deal with voters who don't agree with them and outnumber them.

Almost like cranky white guys are becoming a minority.  And we've seen before how they react.

The secessionist movement is the result of a growing urban-rural divide, which was exacerbated after this year’s legislation session where lawmakers raised renewable energy standards for rural electric co-ops, floated bills increasing regulations on oil and gas, and passed sweeping gun control.

The creation of a new state comes with risks. A new state would have to draw up new water agreements which are critical to agriculture and uses 85 percent of Colorado’s water. Supporters say it also comes with new opportunities.

“I say 80 percent of the oil and gas revenue in the state of Colorado is coming out of northeastern Colorado – Weld, Yuma County, and some of other counties,” Weld County Commissioner Sean Conway said. “Seventy percent of the K-12 funding is coming off the state lands in Weld County alone. I’m telling you we are economic drivers.”

So they want to take their oil money, and screw the rest of Colorado.   These guys don't want a democracy, they want a giant gated community for themselves.

Ask Sudan and South Sudan how breaking up land over oil rights goes, guys.

StupidiNews!

• The defense in the trial of George Zimmerman will wrap up closing arguments today as the case is expected to go to a jury of six women this afternoon.
• Irish lawmakers in the parliament's lower house passed legislation allowing abortion where the mother's life is at risk, sending it to the upper house.
• House Republicans have passed a farm bill without any food stamps funding whatsoever, prompting an immediate veto threat from the White House.
• Sen. Elizabeth Warren is joining Sen. John McCain to sponsor legislation that will restore Glass-Steagall era barriers between commercial and investment banks.
• After its Supreme Court case loss over gene patents, Myriad Genetics still says it owns other patents on testing and continues to sue other genetic analysis companies.

Last Call For Southern Culture On The Skids, Part 2

And Sen. Rand Paul's response to critics that point out "Hey, your social media director is a neo-Confederate douchebag" is pretty much worse than the original problem.

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) is standing by a close aide who for years made pro-secession and neo-Confederate arguments.

"People are calling him a white supremacist," Paul said in an interview with The Huffington Post. "If I thought he was a white supremacist, he would be fired immediately. If I thought he would treat anybody on the color of their skin different that others, I’d fire him immediately."

Hey Rand?  There's a reason why people are calling him that.

Paul's comments follow a report from the conservative Washington Free Beacon about Jack Hunter, who joined Paul's office as social media director in 2012. In his 20s, Hunter was the chairman of the League of the South, a group that "advocates the secession and subsequent independence of the Southern State from this forced union and the formation of a Southern republic," according to the Free Beacon report.

Anti-Defamation League Investigative Research Director Mark Pitcavage called the group "implicitly racist."

During his radio career Hunter also discussed "racial pride" and expressed his support for the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln, according to the Free Beacon. In 2004 Hunter wrote that the heart of Lincoln's assassin, John Wilkes Booth, was "in the right place."

But no, Rand Paul defends the guy.

There has been no evidence of discriminatory behavior by Hunter, Paul said.

"All I can say is, we have a zero tolerance policy for anybody who displays discriminatory behavior or belief in discriminating against people based on the color of their skin, their religion, their sexual orientation, anything like that," Paul said. "We won't tolerate any of that, and I've seen no evidence of that."

During his time as a radio host Hunter would also make public appearances wearing a mask with the Confederate flag printed on it. Paul brushed off the masked when asked about it.

"It was a shock radio job. He was doing wet t-shirt contests. But can a guy not have a youth and stuff? People try to say I smoked pot one time, and I wasn't fit for office," Paul said.

Right.  Totally equivalent. Smoking pot doesn't mean you're unfit for office.  Defending and employing secessionist, white pride assholes makes you unfit for office.

The Children Lash Out

How to be a House Republican, Lesson #174:  Constantly accuse President Obama of retaliating against people on his imaginary "enemies list", then when you get busted for making up the IRS scandal, actually retaliate by cutting the agency's budget by 24 percent to "send a message".

The House Appropriations subcommittee with IRS jurisdiction cleared a spending measure gutting the tax-collecting agency’s budget next year by 24 percent in fiscal 2014. That $9 billion allocation is 30 percent less than President Barack Obama requested for the agency charged with rolling out his signature health care law.

Rep. Peter Roskam, the chief deputy whip in the House, called the appropriation a “reckoning for the IRS.”

“The IRS has abused power, abused the taxpayer, abused discretion and been unwise and foolish in how they’ve carried out the authority that was delegated to them … and they will be held to account in the appropriations process,” the Illinois Republican said.

The spending bill now heads to the full Appropriations Committee before passage on the House floor. It faces more significant hurdles in the Senate, which is controlled by Democrats.

Rep. Kevin Yoder (R-Kan.), who sits on the Appropriations subcommittee with IRS jurisdiction, said the budget cuts combined with Cantor’s proposals are attempts to “clean house,” “send a message” and “try to begin the process to fix the challenges” at the IRS.

The congressional purse strings are “one tool that Congress can use to ensure that agencies do not continue a pattern of mismanagement,” he said.

Not to mention a tool for retaliation against a President whom you hate to the point of irrational rancor.  Remember, when House Republicans accuse the President of anything, it's because they're busy doing it themselves.

Inside The Criminal Mind(lessness)

Indiana Republicans, apparently sick of all this "same-sex marriage" and "equality" nonsense, have decided to turn even applying for a same-sex marriage (often done as a protest in states where it's banned) into a felonious act punishable by prison time.

An update to the state’s criminal code classifies that it’s a Level 6 felony if someone submits false information or lies on a marriage license application. This is actually a downgrade from a Class D felony that was established by a 1997 law, but the adjustment has made news as a reminder that the law exists in the first place. Because the marriage form specifies one “male applicant” and “female applicant,” a same-sex couple could not actually use the form as its written. If a couple were thus to attempt submitting an application in protest of the state ban, they could face a maximum of 18 months in prison and a potential fine of up to $10,000.

And it gets worse:  if you, as a member of a religious clergy, choose to recognize a union, well that's a misdemeanor.

The law actually has some particularly troubling language for clergy as well. Even if state law doesn’t legally recognize same-sex marriages, religious organizations have always been free to at least recognize them within their faith. That may not be so true in Indiana, where the new criminal code says that anyone “who knowingly solemnizes” a same-sex marriage is guilty of a Class B misdemeanor, punishable by up to 180 days in jail and a fine of up to $1,000. It remains unclear if a solemnization has legally occurred in the absence of an issued license. Thus, if an Episcopal church, for example, decided to celebrate the union of two of its gay congregants, the priest might be in violation of the law.

So yeah, the same guys screaming about personal liberty over data monitoring, free speech issues and "the chilling effect" of the Obama administration's war on leaks, and how Obamacare's birth control rules are an attack on religious freedom have zero problem actually putting you in jail for a year an a half and will take your right to vote over your protest for equality.

That's what real, actual totalitarian, police state thugs do to people, make up laws simply to throw people in jail because they disagree with you over something so petty and inhumane in the first place that inequality becomes legal grounds for persecution of a class of citizens.

That's what real religious persecution looks like, tossing clergy in jail for acknowledging two people of the same sex can have love before whatever higher power they believe in.  Providing low-cost birth control is not religious persecution, morons.  Throwing people in jail because they say "I believe you two love each other and I recognize that" is.

Do we understand the frigging difference, people?

StupidiNews!

• Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzokhar Tsarnaev, facing his first court appearance in connection with the attack, entered a not guilty plea in a Boston federal court on Wednesday.
• A bipartisan House bill would establish the Apollo 11 lunar landing site as a national park, protecting the landing artifacts.
• The latest ad campaign from billionaire Charles Koch will target Wichita, Kansas, pushing to stop "government intervention" in business and including ending the national minimum wage.
• Advances in forensic medicine since the 9/11 attack may be valuable for identifying victims of last week's train explosion in Lac-Megantic, Quebec.
• For the first time since its inception in 1992, the annual DEFCON hacker conference is asking federal agencies to skip the event over NSA data gathering.

Last Call For Largeness

Yay America! We're no longer the fattest developed nation on Earth!

According to a new report from the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization, the United States is no longer the world's fattest developed nation―Mexico is.

Nearly a third of Mexican adults (32.8 percent) are considered obese—people aged 20 and older whose body mass index (BMI) is 30 and above. That edges out the United States, where 31.8 percent of American adults are considered obese.

Syria at 31.6 percent, is the third fattest among developed countries, while Venezuela and Libya are tied for fourth at 30.8 percent.

Mexico's urban lifestyle and rising income levels coupled with malnourishment among the country's poor have helped it claim this unhealthy title.

“The same people who are malnourished are the ones who are becoming obese,” Abelardo Avila, a physician with Mexico's National Nutrition Institute, told the Global Post. “In the poor classes we have obese parents and malnourished children. The worst thing is the children are becoming programmed for obesity. It's a very serious epidemic.”

Diabetes kills an estimated 70,000 people a year in Mexico—"or roughly equal to the deaths authorities say are caused by more than six years of the country's gangland wars," the Post noted.

Woohoo!  'MURICA.

The Sunset Of Ultrasound Bob, Part 2

Things are starting to crash hard for Virginia GOP Gov. Bob "Forced Ultrasound For All The Vaginas" McDonnell.  Apparently he has a little problem accepting gifts from wealthy donors that he keeps forgetting to tell people about, and what makes it worse is now we see those gifts caused a direct conflict of interest, with his wife and sister making tens of thousands from donors and McDonnell pushing it under the rug.

A prominent political donor gave $70,000 to a corporation owned by Virginia Gov. Robert F. McDonnell and his sister last year, and the governor did not disclose the money as a gift or loan, according to people with knowledge of the payments.

The donor, wealthy businessman Jonnie R. Williams Sr., also gave a previously unknown $50,000 check to the governor’s wife, Maureen, in 2011, the people said.

The money to the corporation and Maureen McDonnell brings to $145,000 the amount Williams gave to assist the McDonnell family in 2011 and 2012 — funds that are now at the center of federal and state investigations.

Williams, the chief executive of dietary supplement manufacturer Star Scientific Inc., also provided a $10,000 check in December as a present to McDonnell’s eldest daughter, Jeanine, intended to help defray costs at her May 2013 wedding, the people said.

Virginia’s first family already is under intense scrutiny for accepting $15,000 from the same chief executive to pay for the catering at the June 2011 wedding of Cailin McDonnell at the Executive Mansion.

All the payments came as McDonnell and his wife took steps to promote the donor’s company and its products.

The payments to the corporation, confirmed by people familiar with the transactions, offer the first public example of money provided by Williams that would directly benefit the governor and not just his family.

McDonnell is in serious trouble here, if only because if there's one thing politicians will cut your throat over it's messing up their legal kickback gravy train by doing it illegally and threatening all the gifts they're getting too.

I don't see how McDonnell survives this, frankly.  Not that it'll matter much with less than six months left in his term, but I'm pretty sure at this point both parties want him out of the way.

We'll see what happens.  I got 60/40 he goes.

The Long, Dark, Tea Party Time Of The GOP Soul

Wow, it's like I've been saying for months now that House Republicans were going to kill immigration reform, and suddenly WIN THE MORNING figures it out.  Genius.

In private conversations, top Republicans on Capitol Hill now predict comprehensive immigration reform will die a slow, months-long death in the House. Like with background checks for gun buyers, the conventional wisdom that the party would never kill immigration reform, and risk further alienating Hispanic voters, was always wrong — and ignored the reality that most House Republicans are white conservatives representing mostly white districts.

Gosh guys, you mean the party of the Last Gasp of Demographic Privilege is betting everything on white men and saying to hell with everyone else?  HOOCOODANODE.

These members, and the vast majority of their voters, couldn’t care less whether Marco Rubio, Bill O’Reilly and Karl Rove say this is smart politics and policy.

Republican leaders will huddle with their members Wednesday afternoon to plot their public strategy. But after holding countless listening sessions, it is clear to these leaders that getting even smaller, popular pieces of reform will be a tough sell. The House plans a piecemeal approach: a border-security bill this month, maybe one or two items a month in the fall.

And their approach is "our way or the country burns."  Tens of millions of scared jackasses who never imagined a black President in their lifetimes now want to "take their country back" and by God they will trample on the rights of everyone else to remain on top.

Rep. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) held a town meeting last week where 25 of the 100 people spoke out on immigration — and every single one of them argued for staying clear of anything remotely resembling the Senate-passed bill.

“Our constituents don’t trust our government,” Cotton said. And he is reluctant to pass even pieces of immigration reform that he thinks are needed — like a better tracking system for people in the country on visas — because he is concerned they could become “a Trojan horse in a conference committee for a package that puts legalization first and enforcement later.”

It's all fun and games until one of them dates your daughter, moves in next door, or gets re-elected.  Now it's time for Second Amendment remedies against those who you disagree with, right guys?

Keep walking down that road to political oblivion.  It will catch up to you guys eventually, but not before another generation of massive damage to everyone else.  They'd rather reign over the ashes of America than share it with anyone darker than Snooki.